62 higher educational institutions awarded full autonomy by Centre

NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission has awarded full autonomy to 62 higher educational institutes including top varsities such as Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and University of Hyderabad

“These universities will remain within the ambit of UGC but will have the freedom to start new courses, off campus centers, skill development courses, research parks and any other new academic programs. They will also have the freedom to hire foreign faculty, enroll foreign students, give incentive based emoluments to the faculty, enter into academic collaborations and run open distance learning programmes,” said Javadekar.

The decision was taken at a UGC meeting today where five central universities, 21 state universities, 26 private universities besides 10 other colleges were granted autonomy under the Autonomous Colleges Regulation.

“Today is a historic day for higher education in India. These quality institutions will get complete autonomy by which they can start new courses, new departments, new programmes, off campuses, skill courses, research parks, appoint foreign faculty, take foreign students , offer variable incentive packages, introduce online distance learning,” Javadekar told reporters here.

Union Human resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar hailed as “historic” the UGC move which will enable the selected institutes to decide their admission procedure, fee structure and curriculum, among others.

He said these institutes can also get into academic collaboration with top five hundred universities of the world.

“And for all of this they will not have to come to the regulator again and again for seeking permission because they have maintained quality and achieved a benchmark of 3.26 and above NAAC (National Accreditation and Assessment Council) ranking,” he added.

The state universities which have been granted the autonomous status are Jadavpur University, Andhra University, Algappa University, National University of Law, Utkal University, Kurukshetra University, Osmania University, Guru Nanak Dev University, University of Jammu, University of Mysore, Anna University, Panjab University and University of Madras, among others.

OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat and Pandit Deen Dayal Petroleum University, Gujarat are among the private institutions selected by the UGC for the autonomous status.

The 10 colleges which have been granted autonomy will have full freedom but not degree awarding powers, Javadekar said.